Nurburgring 24 Turns Into a Challenge for HARIBO Corvette Team

When you put some of the biggest names in Corvette racing on the famous Nurburgring track, you’re bound to have a great show. Unfortunately, while hopes were high for Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook as they took on the Nurburgring 24 last weekend, things didn’t quite turn out as the Corvette Racing team drivers had anticipated. But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have an interesting race. Check out the Corvette Racing greats duking it out on the German racetrack above.

As we told you last week, the three Corvette Racing drivers teamed up with 2010 FIA GT3 Drivers’ Champion Daniel Keilwitz to pilot the #90 GT3 Z06R Callaway Corvette under the HARIBO team banner for the German 24 hour endurance race. With some of the biggest names in the racing world heading the team, everyone expected to see great results. Unfortunately, drivers only make up a small fraction of the variables in road racing, and when the HARIBO Corvette ran into some troubles within the first hour of the race, the team was destined for a less than outstanding finish.

The Nurburgring 24 proved to be more than a challenge for the Corvette team, as we found out from The Checkered Flag. In the first hour of the race, the HARIBO Corvette experienced a right rear tire blowout with Westbrook driving. While the Timbuli Racing Porsche saw a similar fate just after the start of the race and was able to get to the pits, Westbrook wasn’t as lucky, having to pull the car off to the side of the track with extensive damage.

Although the Corvette’s severe wire damage around the battery zone caused by the tire blowout and subsequent battery fire was eventually repaired, the HARIBO team suffered a debilitating loss of laps that ultimately put them out of the race early. The team continued to compete with a pace amongst the best, however, according to Westbrook’s Twitter feed, but it didn’t quite get them a top ten finish (Westbrook’s Twitter feed also revealed that the car carried a slight BBQ smell for a portion of the race due to a bunny hopping onto the track at the wrong time).

The team’s race to the 24-hour mark was cut short when, according to a Google-translated Jan Magnussen press article off of Magnussen’s website, with just 25 minutes left in the race, the HARIBO Corvette engine died with the Dane driving. At that time, the Corvette team was sitting in 16th place.

Two Audi competitors went on to take the one-two finish at the Nurburgring 24, just like Corvette Racing took the one-two finish at the American Le Mans Series Laguna Seca race earlier this month. It’s disappointing that the Corvette team wasn’t able to pull out a better finish at the German endurance race, but we have a feeling the guys will be trying for the win once again next year. Or at least that’s what Westbrook promised on Twitter when the race was over…